Feedback & Reports

I have to agree with the fisherman on this beat a few days ago - access is awful. There appears to be no effort made. I ruined a pair of waders scrambling through nettles, brambles and the occasional barbed wire fence. There is a lot of deep water in the beat, which means wading up the stream is impossible without a snorkel. I also agree that when you can get at the water it is great and looks very promising. I was hoping for a mayfly hatch, followed by a rise. But no luck. There were a few, many of them driven by the wind in the general direction of Leominster, but not a single rise. Such fish as I found were on a nymph, and I hooked one other which it would have been nice to see. And all the time in the background the big mill wheel slowly turning. Lovely beat; pity about the access.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

Difficult down stream wind managed 2 small bt from a more sheltered area.

2 Trout

Fished a couple of hours this afternoon in a cold gusty wind. A couple of small trout and grayling on nymph.

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

Interesting fishing with an electric fence running one side of the beat. -4 overnight and just above freezing on an overcast day when fishing started. No fish seen and nothing caught.

No fish caught, very tough fishing conditions, river up over 1 metre and coloured, deep and fast throughout. Bank fishing was the order of the day. Near margin nymphing and indicator nymphing tried but to no avail this time.

1 Grayling

Rather miserable weather; nothing rising. The water was clear enough to see a couple of reasonable trout hurtling up or down the river in an uncatchable way. The river is difficult to access: the bank is guarded by an electric fence and there is a sheer drop in many places down 2 or 3 feet of slippery clay into 2 or three feet of water. Can be tricky to climb out again. The bottom has very silty patches, which are good for mayfly but not for humans. Farmer very friendly and helpful.

A short evening visit and only fished up to the weir. 1 12 inch trout from the bottom end then most of the Grayling and both chub from the weir pool.

1 Trout, 5 Grayling, 2 Chub

Small stretch with minimal bankside access.

The river looked like it was fining down as there was some colour on. Nothing rising in the morning but one rose just above the weir at Midday, which obliged first cast.
Moved upstream through the metal gate about 250 yards upstream, fought through the undergrowth and stood mid river casting upstream to an overhanging willow. A struggling Mayfly was swallowed by a Trout, which subsequently came to the net, followed by another shortly afterwards.
I walked to the top of the beat but literally could not find another viable access point to the river because of chest high weed growth but more importantly the electric fence was switched on(I checked, ouch!) despite there being no livestock present, and upstream of the electric fence, 4 rows of wire, the top 2 of which were barbed. Note that I couldn’t figure out an easy way to get to the other side of the river.
In summary a lovely day in 22 degree sunshine, 3 10 inch WBT, the day only marred by a lack of access to the majority of the beat.
All 3 taken on a Mayfly Emerger.
I took some pictures but can’t see how to paste/upload them?

3 Trout